At the end of 1945 Pauling was actively seeking for research funding for the biology and chemistry departments at Caltech. He submitted a grant to the Rockefeller Foundation asking for six million dollars over 15 years beginning in 1947 for "a joint program of research on the fundamental problems of biology and medicine". The Rockefeller Foundation gave Caltech only $50,000 that year, but the next year Caltech acquired a continuing grant of $700,000 distributed over seven years. Two newly appointed members to Caltech's faculty greatly helped Pauling acquire the grant. They were President Lee A. DuBridge and chair of the biology department George W. Beadle. All three men wanted to see the incorporation of chemistry and biology, specifically genetics.

Immediately after the publication on sickle cell anemia appeared in 1949, Pauling, Beadle and DuBridge tried unsuccessfully to get funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and other philanthropic organizations to build and develop a Medical Chemistry laboratory at Caltech. Although this did not happen as first envisioned, their efforts eventually proved successful and they received substantial sums of money from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations.